The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-12-31
SINGULAR FIRES.
= Number Of Curious 1nstau ces OF spo
taueous Counbustton.

i
| taueous Combination.
Scarcely y month passes that careful
Investigation into the causes of fires
Ices not reveal some new hazard oi
greater or less Importance, or mako
Known instances Of the starting of fires
under circumstances hitherto considered
impossible. Ntui)i'lW rNi uNiI
Cotton In bales has always been sup
posed to be free from spontaneous COM
bustion until lately, when u case was
discovered in store house in Northern
New Jersey. A number of bales Of Sea
Island cotton stored there were found
to be on fire, and when 10 was extin-
gnished in one spot it would break out
In another. A careful examination OF
the cotton and its condition showed
that 1t was roller gin cotton-that Is,
COTTON which had not been run through
q gang of saws, after tho method Of Eli
Whitley, but the lint had been drawn
awayfrom the seeds by pair of rolls,
one large and one small, set at Just the
distance to keep tho seeds from passing
through, while the fiber passes on and
goes into bag. '"'lt
1t was found in this lot of cotton that
some Of the seeds had passed into the
rolls and been cracked, which caused
the oil to exude, saturating the fiber,
which was thus by the time it arrived
Ia the North in proper condition for
spontaneous combustion. Careful and
extensive inquiry among Northern mills
failed to reveal any other such case.
and therefore it can hardly he taken rs
a strong objection against the use Of
roller gins in general. The ordinary
roller gin is practically q prehistoric
tool, as it has been in use since cotton
WAS known in ancient India. 1t is not
nearly SO fast as the ordinary saw gin,
but it is said to do it's work somewhat
botter and with the least possible injury
to the fiber, and to be therefore pre-
ferred for Sea Island cotton, which is
Of long fiber, and almost double the
value Of the ordinary grades.
Another curious fire was that which
occurred in q knife factory in Massa-
chusetts. In the middle of room
small milling machine was working on
hardwood handles of knives. The dust
OF small fragments of the wood which
were ground off were drawn up through
a metal tube about one foot in diameter
by a blower in the room above, and
thence forced through q wooden pipe
out into the air. A spark from an
emery wheel, fifteen feet away from
the milling machine, struck window
twenty feet away, and glancing back
entered the mouth of the metal tube
and set the hardwood dust on fire,
stream of which twenty feet in length
poured out of the wooden pipe into the.
air. The alarm was given by people
outside, tue workmen in the room being
entirely unaware of any fire. ="
Another peculiar instance was a fire
started by some cotton waste which an
engineer in cleaning up mill put in
ahc front of a boiler where it would be
convenient for the firemcn to burn in
the morning. During the night the
waste got on fire from spontaneous
combustion and set tireto the kindlings
and succeeded in causing sufficient
steam to cause the boiler to blow oil,
very thoroughly soaring the watchman,
who naturally thought the boiler, which
he knew had been left without fire,
was going to explode. M N Il
Still another singular case was that
Of II fire caused in the picker room of /,
jute mill by a man driving Il nail in the
ceiling. The nail glanced OIL and was
struck by the rapidly moving bcaters.
and the sparks which were caused
thereby led to a serious blaze.-M. Y.
Fire and Wafer.